The present invention relates to an electrical assembly for selectively operating a household appliance in a demonstration mode or a standard mode.
Nowadays household appliances, for example refrigerators, washing machines, oven, etc., are usually exposed in shops by placing a great number of them aligned side by side on the shop floor.
The differences in the external appearance of the various household appliances of a same kind are often small, while the technical characteristics and the operational functions of different appliances of the same kind may be very different.
There is therefore the need to give to the possible customers a way to appreciate, directly in the shop (or in other exposition places, such as a trade fair), the operational functions of the household appliance, so as to help costumers to choose the appliance which best meets theirs requirements.
In order to satisfy this need, there have been developed some household appliances adapted to operate in a demonstration mode, called also “demo mode”, that is a functional mode which allows the user to interact with the user interface (usually comprising a display and an input device, such as a keyboard or one or more buttons or knobs) of the household appliance substantially in the same way as if the household appliance would really work, but without really activating the main loads of the household appliance (e.g. compressors, motors, pumps, heating elements, etc.). The demo mode could also comprise the representation via the user interface of some information regarding the household appliance, for instance the power consumption, a description of the operational functions, some instructions, etc. In this way the user can learn and also practise on the various functions of the household appliance, even if the latter doesn't really operate.
For example in the demo mode a user could practice on setting and activating the washing programs of a washing machine, a rapid cooling function in a refrigerator, a particular cooking program in an oven, etc.
An example of a household appliance provided with a demo mode function is illustrated, for instance, in KR 20040095777, which discloses a control device of an oven display unit and a method thereof, which are provided to operate the display unit of the oven according to place or time, by selecting the normal operation mode and the demo mode, with a demo mode setting switch before supplying power; the control device and the method are also adapted to improve the safety and the reliability by an automatically stopping function of the oven in the demo mode. The control device of the oven display unit comprises a demo mode setting switch for selecting the demo mode by a user.
Another electrical appliance (in this case a shaving apparatus) provided with a demo mode function is disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,801,637; in this case the shaving apparatus is powered by a rechargeable battery. The shaving apparatus comprises a display with signs for indicating a status of operational functions of the apparatus, such as the residual charge of the battery and the residual number of usage periods. The shaving apparatus further comprises a control system for activating the signs in dependence on a condition of use of the apparatus during a cycle of use which corresponds to recharging and to discharging of the rechargeable battery. The control system includes a demonstration mode for demonstrating on the display a cycle of use of the apparatus, by displaying in an accelerated manner the signs in the sequence of their appearance during the cycle of use. If the shaving apparatus is connected to the mains voltage, a microcontroller, comprised in the shaving apparatus, detects the connection to the mains voltage and can choose from a single demonstration or a recurrent demonstration.
Usually, in the known household appliances provided with a demo mode function, the demo mode is activated by pushing a particular combination of keys provided on the user interface of the appliance.
In some of these known household appliances the demo mode is automatically disabled if the household appliance is switched off and/or if no electric power is supplied to the household appliance; this feature involves a drawback, which will be explained in the following. When these known household appliances are exposed in a store, many of these household appliances are usually connected to a same electric line which provides the power supply to all of them (the power supply is necessary, for example, in order to perform the demo mode); in order to avoid energy wastage, the electric line is typically not powered when the store is closed (for example during the night), so as to switch off all the household appliances connected to the electric line. Since the demo mode of these known household appliances is automatically disabled if the household appliance is switched off and/or if no electric power is supplied to the household appliance, when the electric line is powered once more, the demo mode of this kind of household appliance is not active, and therefore it has to be manually activated by an operator; this operation may require a lot of time, in particular if there are many household appliances, and therefore sometimes the demo mode isn't activated.
There are however other known household appliances in which both in order to enable the demo mode and in order to disable the demo mode it is necessary to push a specific combination of keys; in this case, once the demo mode has been activated, it remains active even after the power off and the successive power on of the household appliance.
However, also these known household appliances have a drawback; in fact sometimes it happens that a household appliance is sold after, the demo mode has been activated, and if the customer isn't aware that the household appliance is in the demo mode, he could believe that its new household appliance doesn't function correctly, with the consequent discomfort due to the need of calling the customer service.
Moreover, even if the user is aware that the household appliance is performing the demo mode, he might not know how to disable the demo mode, and therefore also in this case he could have the need of calling the customer service.
Moreover in both the two known kinds of household appliances described above, there is the risk that a user might inadvertently activate the demo mode during the functioning of the household appliance (for example by an accidental pushing of the keys), which may cause, for example, the deterioration of the objects of which the household appliance is operating; for example, if the household appliance is a refrigerator, the activation of the demo mode during the real functioning of the appliance may cause the products contained in such a refrigerator to get warm, and therefore to quickly rotten.